“When I think about archaeology, really all it means is it’s the study of the past through material remains,” says De Leon.

“It doesn’t mean that the past has to be 5,000 years ago. I mean, the past could be very much this morning.”

“People… are captivated by individual objects — a pair of baby shoes, a baby bottle, a dog-eared Bible, love letters — things that are quite personal, intimate, that speak to an individual’s story of hardship or survival or optimism,” he continues. ”And I think that’s one way of thinking about this project. For me, archaeologically-speaking, it’s much more about all of this stuff together.”

“It’s partly to tell these individual stories about the children that I’ve come across, the people seeking to reunite with their families, the hardship and the death that happens in the desert. But it’s also about the massive number of people who have gone through this process.”

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